Type 1 or TrueType?

Gabriel Ben-Yosef

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Jun 18, 2003, 2:04:05 PM6/18/03

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I'm a bit confused here, and I would appreciate your help.

I need to create a document that has only Type 1 fonts and no TrueType fonts. I then need to save the document with fonts embedded as a Postscript (.ps) file, not an Encapsulated Postscript (.eps) file to send to my printer.

When I create a document only using Times and Palatino, inevitably the fonts that are embedded are TrueType.

(1) How do I know which of my fonts on my Mac running OS 10.2.6 are Type 1?

(2) How do I ensure that if a font is available as both Type 1 and TrueType that I'm getting Type 1?

Thanks in advance.

Jay Fraser

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Jun 18, 2003, 6:16:40 PM6/18/03

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I don't have my OS X machine with me right now, so I can't give you the best answer, but...

I believe that the fonts that come with the system (the dreaded dfonts) are a flavor of TrueType. If those are what you are using, that might be your issue.

Generally speaking, if you have 2 fonts with the same font name on your system, you are asking for trouble. In your situation, you obviously want to remove the TT fonts. There have been many threads describing how to remove dfonts, but the short form is to boot into system 9, remove the fonts, then go back to OS X.

You can tell the flavor of the font by its extension; TrueType fonts will have a ".ttf" extension; I think dfonts are called ".dfont" (duh!). Type 1's will have a printer font file and a screen font file, and I don't think those have extensions. Open Type fonts will have ".otf" on the end. You can get that info under the "get info" command, which used to be command-i, but might have changed in OS X. Look for something that says "Full File Name", I think.

Getting into this a little further, if your printer's RIP is using PostScript 3, he shouldn't have any problem w/ TrueType.

Jay

Jim Birkenseer

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Jun 18, 2003, 11:43:24 PM6/18/03

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Gabriel,

From InDeisgn, export your file as PDF. Then open the PDF in Acrobat and go to File->Document Properties. Then look at the fonts information. It will tell you the font format.

Cheers!

-- Jim

Marco Antonio SantaMaria

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Jun 19, 2003, 10:00:33 AM6/19/03

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Gabriel, in InDesign go to Type Menu/FInd and then click on the More Info button, that will show you where the font is used and other attribuites for it.

Times and Palatino generally are TrueType fonts , if you use the ones that came with your computer no matter what system u r using. You might want to see if you have Type 1 versions of those fonts.

Good Luck!

Just_A_Mac_Guy

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Jun 19, 2003, 10:53:21 AM6/19/03

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Some call it urban legend... some have been burned once too often... but it is generally accepted that Type 1 are preferable to true type...

an I don't agree that the OS or any Application should dictate what fonts you have open... Strip any nonessential fonts from the OS, turn off Autoactivation and take control...

2¢ worth

Thomas Phinney

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Jun 19, 2003, 10:57:27 AM6/19/03

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For information on fonts in OS X, see this Apple white paper: <http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/FontsonMacOSX.pdf>

Just to clarify a couple of things:

- your typical Mac TrueType fonts do not have a "ttf" extension, as that's a Windows and OpenType thingie.

- Dfonts are just a different way of packaging Mac TrueType fonts, but are still TrueType.

Cheers,

T

Thomas Phinney
Fonts Program Mgr.
Adobe Systems

Just_A_Mac_Guy

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Jun 19, 2003, 12:54:32 PM6/19/03

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I should clarify that there is nothing inherently wrong with "Well Made Good" truetype... Quality vendor usually implys quality typefaces....

Problem is all the crappy ones that are out there from less reliable collections and students with Fontographer {or other Font wrecking utility}

But thats just my opinion.. I could be wrong...

Jay Fraser

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Jun 19, 2003, 2:40:08 PM6/19/03

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Thomas, thanks for the clarification.

One thing:

- your typical Mac TrueType fonts do not have a "ttf" extension, as that's
a Windows and OpenType thingie.

Even in OS X? I haven't had a chance to check yet.

Jay

Thomas Phinney

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Jun 20, 2003, 2:33:53 PM6/20/03

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Mac OS X can use TTF-style TrueType fonts. But legacy Mac suitcase-based TrueType fonts continue to work fine. Apple's own TrueType fonts that ship with OS X are in neither flavor, but instead are dfonts. Outside of the system fonts, I expect most of the TrueType fonts one will run into on X will be old Mac suitcase-based TrueType fonts. (Is this confusing enough yet?)

I will second JAMG's comments about TrueType. Nothing inherently wrong with TrueType, it just gets a bad rap from some of the badly made fonts out there.

T

Marco Antonio SantaMaria

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Jun 20, 2003, 2:39:29 PM6/20/03

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In addition to having very fuew glyphs in their sets. Better to buy TT fonts form a reliable source.

Jay Fraser

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Jun 20, 2003, 4:57:47 PM6/20/03

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Thomas said:

For information on fonts in OS X, see this Apple white paper:

I swear, when I first opened this doc, it said "Using and Mangling Fonts in OS X. By the time I did a double-take, the third word had changed to "Managing".

Gabriel, I fogot about the best tool for your problem: Find Font! Go to Type>Find Font, and you will have a wonderful window that lists all the fonts used in your document, what flavor they are, how many characters use the font, and where the fonts live. You can do find-and-replace from here, but check very carefully afterwards for changed line-breaks, etc. If you click on "More Info" it slows things down a bit, but gives you lots of good stats.

Jay

Thomas Phinney

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Jun 21, 2003, 4:29:45 PM6/21/03

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For some more detailed information on font formats, one can also see my article on the subject, at: <http://www.worsleypress.com/pubprod/hints.htm>

Cheers,

T